LOS ANGELES, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 11/18/08 -- The use of social-networking platforms in 2009 will continue to increase, and their growth will flourish in specific niches, including events, training, market research and business communications, according to Pringo, a leader in empowering online communities.

Pringo CEO Majid Abai offers the following forecast for how social networking will shape up in 2009:

1. The 'new' workforce: As Millennials continue to replace baby boomers, the way employees operate and collaborate is going to change. They will move further away from the use of email as the primary form of communication and move towards instant, quick forms of correspondence, including IM, online chat, text, micro-blogging and other 'real-time' tools. Immediate communication is valuable to the new workforce as they have grown up and are more comfortable with Internet-based interaction.

2. Conferences: While face-to-face, in-person events do and will continue to have value, they also have limitations. Pringo anticipates that show organizers will more widely adopt and implement social-networking platforms to enable attendees to meet and interact virtually, extending the life of a conference by facilitating online conversations between attendees and presenters. Additionally, as companies tighten spending in an increasingly challenging economic environment, many will resort to holding entire conferences online to help companies eliminate the overhead costs of travel, lodging and loss of productivity due to time out of the office. Through online conferencing platforms that include social-networking components, participants can meet and interact, plan and coordinate meetings, hold presentations and follow up with each other after the event is over.

3. Market research: As budgets continue to tighten, market research firms will be limited to the amount of on-site analysis they can conduct, but will still need to cover a broad geographic scope to ensure their data is statistically valid. They will likely turn to social-networking platforms to organize and conduct their studies. By identifying and interacting with various customer segments, organizations can design products for those segments that are based on direct feedback received through online communities. Active participants of such communities will then be 'beta' users of the new product and its biggest advocates on other social networks.

4. Training: Corporate HR departments, as well as other education and training organizations, will find value in using social-networking platforms to hold training sessions and interact with their constituents. They allow short information sessions to be held online that could combine collaboration, interactive sessions and even games to deliver the message to participants.

5. Intranets: Organizations will incorporate social-networking capabilities into their intranets to enhance internal communication between employees as well as external communication with partners. This will allow colleagues who share common geographic, demographic or functional boundaries to communicate easily within groups and share knowledge, experiences and best practices.

6. Enterprise software: Pringo envisions social-networking functions built into various business software, such as enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management applications, enabling colleagues to collaborate more easily and share knowledge on certain topics or customers.

"The business world is becoming increasingly accustomed to communicating quickly and efficiently over the Internet," said Majid Abai, CEO of Pringo. "Social-networking solutions enable fast and effective correspondence between groups of people, whether employee-to-employee, organization-to-customer or business-to-business. In 2009, we will see social media continue to migrate from a leisure activity to a productive business tool."

About Pringo

Pringo is the leading provider of non-hosted online community platforms. Its products help organizations in any industry build integrated online communities, boosting brand awareness and Web site stickiness, increasing customer and brand loyalty, ultimately driving sales and growing revenues. The Pringo platform is an essential component of any organization's sales, marketing and internal and external communications strategies. Pringo is privately funded and is based in Los Angeles, CA. For more information, please visit www.pringo.com.